History of poker

If the draw poker and stud cards are 5 cards variants that have won the most success in the twentieth century, the beginning of the twentieth century was marked by the success of variants with community cards, the most famous being Texas Hold ‘em.

In the 1920s, it is ‘Wild Window’ and ‘Spit in the Ocean’ which first familiarize players with the idea of community cards. Another significant development was the introduction of alternative high-low, after which the pot (a term meaning all bets placed during the hand) was split equally between the highest hand and the hand most low. Another development was lowball poker, part of draw poker in which it is the lowest combination that wins the pot.

The 1930s saw the emergence of a variant of stud poker where players were being distributed seven cards instead of the usual five. The number of betting rounds increased as well. The ability for players to get stronger hands, using five of the seven cards dealt to them, coupled with the proliferation of betting opportunities assured an immediate success to 7-card stud poker.

The 5-card stud was soon eclipsed by the arrival of this new variant, rightly regarded as much more dynamic. Soon after, the version of lowball stud 7 card, called razz, appeared. 7 card poker, whether playing high or low, has become the reference poker variant in Stud games.

The 1980s were marked by the success of Omaha, which is generally referred to Omaha. Played with a community card in Omaha would pave the way for the alternative that wins the most success today: Texas Hold’em.

We can measure the level of interest in poker by studying the books that over the years have been written. To get an idea of how it was played in the early twentieth century, consult the book of R. F. Foster, Practical Poker, published in 1905. The first references to the concept of dealer’s choice are emerging from this period, suggesting that poker players were sufficiently familiar with a number of variants to pass from one to another without difficulty.

The many editions of Hoyle’s famous book on card games, which was first published in 1742, are a valuable source of information on the evolution of poker and its variants. More recently, the literature on poker has been enriched by many theoretical works devoted to the strategic aspects of the game, a trend started by Frank R. Wallace in 1968 with his book, Advanced Concepts of Poker. This was the first in a series of books devoted to the study of betting strategies called aggressive, which by common agreement are those that perform best.